Jakarta and Surabaya are chosen to become pilot cities in terms of ease of doing business, Cabinet Sec-retary Pramono Anung announced last Friday, April 8, 2016. If this pilot project is successful, Jakarta and Surabaya will be used as models for other regions, Pramono said. He hopes Indonesia’s ranking in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Survey is going to improve somewhere in between 40 and 50.

According to Pramono, a number of deregulations have been initiated at central as well as regional government level to facilitate business regulations for local companies. Tri Rismaharini, mayor of Surabaya, pointed out, that inhibiting business permit applications had been made easier to be conducted, such as the business trading license (SIUP) and trading certificate (TDP). Franky Sibarani from the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) states, that a lot of work is required to improve the country’s ranking. Nevertheless, Franky states that BKPM’s evaluation results show progress.

The Ease of Doing Business Ranking conducted by the World Bank each year evaluates countries’ regulatory environment for starting and operating local firms. In the latest survey presented in 2015, Indonesia improved it’s position by 11, gaining rank 109 from 189 countries included in the report. According to Franky, BKPM projects the 53rd place for Indonesia for this year’s report. The World Bank will conduct their survey in Indonesia this month.